Lindbergh Case: A Fruitless Search, And Some Red Eye

After $50,000 in ransom cash was given by Lindbergh intermediary John F. Condon to "Cemetery John," Charles Lindbergh did what he did best: fly an airplane.

On April 3, he flew off in search of a boat that Cemetery John's note said he'd find between Horseneck Beach and Gay Head, off the Massachusetts coast. While Col. Lindbergh sought his son, Hunterdon County Sheriff William B. Wean and his men sought "Red Eye."

It was still Prohibition, and the repeal of the constitutional amendment that banned the sale of alcoholic beverages was more than a year away. But that didn't mean people weren't drinking and in 1932, "Red Eye" was a brand of local bootlegged rum.

Perhaps Sheriff Wean was embarrassed that his search of the Sourland Mountains weeks earlier, in search of the missing Lindbergh child, had not only failed to find the child, but also failed to find any of the illegal stills rumored to be run by "mountain people."

County Detective Elmer Hann said the term "Red Eye" was apt: "One drink and you see red."

The rum was seized during a raid on a home south of Flemington. "Saturday business was in full swing at the establishment when the raiders appeared with a search warrant issued by Judge Robbins," the Democrat reported. "The confiscated liquor was placed in the jail vault, awaiting court orders for its destruction," the article said. "No analysis of the contraband was
made."

Sheriff Wean was more successful in his quest than Col. Lindbergh was in his. Even after days of searching, the famous flyer had to admit that he could find no trace of the boat or his son. He'd been tricked.